The best teachers of meditation in the Earth Zone are Bileka, Eralicarison, Ahahbon, Panfodra and Galago. They all have common close relations with The Lord of Rest, and they also partly reveal the secrets of the Four of Swords.
Book T explains that the Four of Swords announces rest after sorrow, peace after war, and silence after battle. For some reason, A.E. Waite designed this card to look like a knight lying on a coffin. He seems dead, but in fact he meditates, rests, and recovers from the experience he had with the Three of Swords, the Five of Swords or some similar cards.
The ruler of this card is the Lord of Rest. He is a sleeping hero. This lord has a lot in common with many sleeping heroes. One of them is Barbarossa, who is said to have never died, but to sleep in his mysterious castle on the Kifheuser Mountain. He is sitting at a stone table. His beard had grown so much that it wrapped around the table twice. By the end of the world, his beard will turn the third round. Only then will Barbarossa wake up.
King Matjaz of Carantania has to wait until he wakes up when his beard turns around the table nine times. When he wakes up, he will defeat all his enemies and bring freedom to his people. Arthur sleeps in the Nibelung, and Charlemagne in Untersberg. King Ogier of Denmark sleeps in his castle in Kronborg. Rodrigo, the last Gothic king is also asleep but will wake up when the time comes to free his people from slavery. Baobdil, a Muslim prince from Granada, is still asleep. Vytautas the Great will wake up to liberate Lithuania. German King Henry the Birdman, Moravian King Jechminek and Polish Prince Gievont are still asleep, and they will wake up to bring freedom to their people.
Serbian hero Marko Kraljevic is still sleeping in the cave together with his faithful horse, Sarac. Saint Wenceslas of Bohemia also sleeps on Blanik Mountain, together with a large number of Czech knights. They will all wake up when the worst of all times comes.
The Lord of Rest can explain to the magician the secret meanings of the legends about sleeping heroes and kings. Certainly, this lord helps the magician to sleep and rest. More importantly, this spirit helps magi to always have enough time to devote to their occult studies. Free time is in a way one of God’s greatest gifts. He promotes the idea that philosophy originates from leisure.
This card would not be in the deck of swords if it were not problematic in some situations. It is not bad to sleep and rest, but sleep must not be prolonged indefinitely. There is a certain tendency of this card that draws us towards the longest possible dream, and those beautiful and romantic legends about sleeping heroes speak about it in a certain way.
The Lord of Rest is not an advocate of eternal sleep – if we look at the knight on the card – he has no beard – his meditation is therefore in its infancy – but since we are ordinary, imperfect human beings – his overemphasized influence could lead us to some extreme laziness.
It should be known when it is time for inertia and when it is time for action. Some people still think that meditation alone will solve problems. Others think that prayers alone will bring them salvation. Others say that you just need to think positively and that everything will turn out great in the end. These are all misconceptions. And these misconceptions are partly due to the overemphasized influence of the Lord of Rest.
Magicians know that meditations, prayers and positive thoughts have a function only if they are accompanied by a certain action. Of course, there are those among the magicians who think that it is enough just to summon the relevant spirit, and that after that everything will be fine. And they are certainly under the overemphasized influence of this little arcana too.
There are different types of vacation, and some of them are undeserved. The Lord of Rest does not look at all kindly on mere laziness, avoidance of obligations, and boredom. Having a lot of free time, and spending it in boredom, is a mockery of fate.
In the distorted sense, the Four of Swords is just talking about boredom, laziness, undeserved rest and avoiding obligations, but sometimes also about depression. Depressed people who can’t get out of bed are strongly influenced by the distorted effects of this card.
This card bears the number 4 and perfectly shows some of the most important virtues of the powerful and benevolent Jupiter, who seems to be telling us on this occasion: Have plenty of free time and use it for meditation, contemplation, rest, philosophy, spiritual development, and gaining wisdom.